Why Be/e Collective: Praesepe

Installation view of "Praesepe" in PC-G's Reilly Gallery.

Founded in 2001 by artists Sara Young and Tyler Budge,Why Be/e Collective is a collaborative duo whose exhibiting moniker derives from a clever take on the pair’s surname initials and mutual interest in honey bees.

Praesepe, Why Be/e Collective’s new site-specific installation for Providence College—Galleries, uses the organizing principles of the beehive to explore contemporary notions of collectivity, cooperation and personal versus communal creation. Comprised of multiple boxed beehives storing several thousand glass test tubes filled with everything from mundane debris to tiny yet fully realized art projects, the installation—accompanied by a soundtrack citing a seemingly endless list of contents—ponders modern culture’s fixation on individual work ethic, systematic group labor and the cumulative effects of production en masse.